North Carolina teacher reveals the heartfelt way her class 'privately' protest gun violence

For fear of backlash, many teachers were unable to take part in Thursday's #ENOUGH! National School Walkout

Thousands of students and teachers have walked out of classrooms across the United States this morning, as part of the #Enough! National School Walkout, to raise awareness about the impact of gun violence.

The nationwide march comes one month after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School which killed 17 people.

At 10am local time, students, teachers, parents and administrators took to the streets and demanded Congress act on gun reform. They marched in silence for 17 minutes -- each minute a sombre nod to the 17 lives tragically taken in the Parkland massacre.

While organisers described the march as an act of solidarity, many of those who are directly affected by America's current gun laws were unable to take part, for fear of reprisal from their school community.

"Unfortunately, I don’t teach in a school where I can really express any type of viewpoint on this issue in fear of parent or administration backlash," Sophie*, a primary school teacher in North Carolina tells 9Honey. "Honestly, I’m going to participate in my own way privately in my classroom."

Students assemble for a rally on the West Front of the Capitol to call on Congress to act on gun violence prevention. (Getty)

Sophie explains how, as a teacher of young children, she sees her job more as "a calling" rather than simply an occupation.

"I spend more time with my students than some of their parents do and I refuse to set a negative example for them," she says. "You can’t solve hate with hate. You can’t fix bullying with more bullying. Same goes for gun violence -- we can’t solve gun issues with more guns.

"So today, for 17 minutes we will draw pictures of our perfect worlds where world peace is possible, where no boys and girls go to bed with hungry bellies and where children can play outside and go to school without the fear of a gunman trying to hurt them."

Sophie recalls her shock after being asked twice in the last few weeks whether she would like a gun for her third-grade class.

"The first time was by a parent," she says. "This really made me angry but I kept a smile on my face, and said 'nope'. The second was in a survey from my school district. I am a teacher. My students are 8 years old [and] I use to teach kindergarten -- which consists of 5 and 6 year olds -- I absolutely do not think it is necessary or even safe to teach children when a gun is in the room. The thought blows my mind that this is even a conversation. Whoever thinks it is a good idea clearly has never set foot in a kindergarten classroom."

She adds, "It shouldn’t even be on the list of possible solutions to the problem."

Students from Josephinum Academy in Chicago walk out on March 14, 2018. (GETTY)

Sophie says that today's silent exercise -- where the kids drew what world peace meant to them for 17 minutes -- was just one of the small ways she hoped to educate her class in what is a hostile political climate.

"Every day since the shooting, my class and I sit in a circle and we talk about how we have spread kindness that day," she explains. "Since doing this, I’ve seen more friendships blossom, more peer praise, and even all around happier kids -- and that’s just in taking 10 minutes a day to share and have conversation."

Thursday's walkout was organised by young people working with Women’s March Youth Empower, who say although the movement was sparked by the Parkland shooting, the march is about calling out gun violence.

"I play a ton of different roles throughout the school day -- not just teacher, but nurse, mom, custodian, secretary, hairstylist... you name it," Sophie tells 9Honey. "Teachers like myself are overworked and underpaid and most of them probably have second jobs just to stay afloat financially.

"But in all of that stress most of us teachers have one thing in common -- we want the best for our kids. We want to not only teach them reading, writing and arithmetic but we want to teach them how to be good citizens, how to be a good friend and how to be kind to everyone."

And while it's hard for us at home to relate to such an epidemic -- given an entire generation of young Australians grew up free from mass shootings following Prime Minister John Howard's 1996 gun amnesty -- Sophie offers her own hope for the future:

"Instead of buying teachers guns, let's put more money into education to fund more school counsellor and psychiatrists positions," she says.

"Let’s educate teachers in warning signs of depression and other mental illnesses."